PSYCHID^. 341 



plate of the second segment large, black, embracing the 

 segment but narrowed at the sides ; other plates narrower, 

 and all divided on the lateral fold. On the body are 

 numei'ous minute raised dots arrang-ed in a different order to 

 tliat apparent in the generality of larvae, and there are 

 greyish plates on the two last segments. The first duty of 

 the young larva appears to be to construct a case of silk and 

 any substance that comes to hand, commonly gnawings of the 

 case of its parent, in which the eggs are frequently deposited. 

 June to February or March, on grasses, and possibly on 

 other low-growing plants, but its habits are imperfectly 

 known. When full grown the case is usually to be found on 

 the trunks of oaks, alders, or other trees in woods, or on 

 rocks and boulders in open moors. But it more frequently 

 produces a hymenopterous parasite than a moth. 



Pupa of the male light brown, of the ordinary form ; that 

 of the female paler and more like that of a Dipteron, having 

 no covers for wings or legs. In the larval case, which, 

 when the larva is full fed, is fastened down, by the mouth 

 end, to the lower part of the trunk of a tree or to a post or 

 boulder; the larva then turns round, opens the hitherto 

 closed end, spins a tube of silk so elastic that it closes when 

 net in use, and then assumes the pupa state. Its habits 

 were so well described bv Richard Weaver, a well-known 

 collector, forty years ago, that I quote his words : " I 

 commence at the time the larva is full fed ; it then finds a 

 suitable locality for fixing the case ; and now that end of 

 the case which was formerly the aperture for the head and 

 legs, for the convenience of feeding and crawling about, 

 being no longer wanted open, the larva spins up that end, 

 turns round in the case and sets it in order for use, forming 

 another aperture, and that end of the case is lengthened in 

 the shape of a funnel, it being made soft and elastic, but the 

 end is not quite open till after the moth has burst from the 

 pupa. The pupa of the female is thin and pliable, unlike 



